Philippe Ariès

Philippe Ariès (1914-1984) was a French historian known for his pioneering studies on the history of childhood, family, and death. Although he initially trained in medieval history and worked outside the academic sphere, Ariès gained significant relevance with his work L’enfant et la vie familiale sous l’Ancien Régime (1960), translated as The Child and Family Life in the Old Regime. In this book, he argued that childhood, as we conceive it today, is a relatively recent social construct, born in the Modern Age

His research, influenced by the Annales school, focused on the cultural and emotional aspects of everyday life, paying special attention to social representations of time, death, and family customs. In Essais sur l’histoire de la mort en Occident (1977), he explored how attitudes towards death have changed from the Middle Ages to the 20th century

Ariès was criticized for basing many of his conclusions on artistic and literary sources, but his innovative approach opened new paths for cultural and social history. He died in Paris in 1984, leaving a fundamental legacy in contemporary historiography

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